Sandoval watch party: 5 p.m. next to Atlantis

Just a reminder that the Washoe GOP watch party for Gov. Sandoval's speech at the GOP national convention begins at 5 p.m. at the GOP Team Nevada headquarters at 3702 S. Virginia St., Suite G1. It is in the shopping center next to the Atlantis resort.

The speech, set to begin at 6 p.m. PDT. It is Sandoval's second speech before.

It marks Sandoval's second speech before the GOP national convention.

Here is a news report written after his last speech before the GOP national convention in 2004. In 2012, we're still writing about the same politicians in this 2004 story:

Sandoval praises Bush’s leadership

By Faith Bremner

Gannett News Service

NEW YORK — Nevada Attorney General Brian Sandoval made his national debut at Madison Square Garden, praising President Bush’s leadership in a four-minute, prime-time speech to the Republican National Convention on Wednesday.

Nevada delegates, in navy-blue T-shirts with Nevada written across the back, stood at attention, clapped and cheered wildly while Sandoval spoke about what President Bush has done to fight crime and protect children from crime.

“He was excellent. He is a great speaker, and he presented a topic that’s really important to everyone — the protection of children,” said first-time delegate Greg Stewart of Incline Village.

“I’m excited for Brian, I think he did a great job,” said Secretary of State Dean Heller, also a delegate. “Whatever Brian does to elevate and expose Nevada is good for all of us.”

Back in Nevada, leading state Democrats denounced Sandoval’s support of Bush in the face of the president’s approval of the proposed nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain.

Sandoval has led the state’s latest legal fight on the project but co-chairs the Bush re-election campaign in Nevada and has defended the president’s decision to transport 77,000 tons of the nation’s most radioactive waste to the state.

In a Las Vegas news conference, U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., and U.S. Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Las Vegas, called on Sandoval to use his speech to denounce the GOP platform that supports increased use of nuclear power and creation of “an environmentally sound nuclear waste repository.”

“If he really wanted to send the president a message about nuclear waste, Brian Sandoval would resign as chairman of the Bush campaign in the Silver State and he would tell George Bush that Nevada is not for sale, even if that means setting aside his own political ambitions,” Berkley said in a written release.

Sandoval has said he and the president have “agreed to disagree” on Yucca Mountain and that he will continue to fight the project in the legal arena.

Sandoval’s speech was one of about 15 that helped warm up the audience for the night’s principal speaker, Vice President Dick Cheney. Labor Secretary Elaine Chao, Democratic U.S. Sen. Zell Miller of Georgia, former President Reagan’s son, Michael, and Lynne Cheney also spoke.

One reason the Bush campaign invited Sandoval to speak is that he’s the only Hispanic Republican to hold statewide elected office.

Sandoval told the convention that he and his wife, Kathleen, recently had their third child and that he shares President Bush’s goal of keeping America’s children safe. He lauded the president for signing legislation that helps prosecutors fight child pornography and go after criminals who prey on kids and use the Internet to lure children into sex crimes.

“Thanks to the leadership of our president, America is safer for our children,” Sandoval said. “It’s safer for the rest of us, too.”

He told delegates that the president has not forgotten domestic violence while pursuing the war on terrorism.

“From Project Safe Neighborhoods to the president’s fight against identity theft, from his anti-drug strategy to his plan to eradicate gun crime in America, this president has demonstrated an ability to lead and deliver results,” Sandoval said.

About this blog

Ray Hagar is the political reporter for the Reno Gazette-Journal and a fifth-generation Nevadan. Hagar is also a co-host for the Nevada Newsmakers statewide television program. He is the co-author of "Johnson-Jeffries: Dateline Reno," a book about the 1910 "Fight of the Century" in Reno that pitted black world champion Jack Johnson against the "Great White Hope," Jim Jeffries